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M S Sreerekha

More and more women's studies centres and courses in gender studies are being introduced in India but the academic relevance, recognition and role for women's/gender issues within the broader space for social sciences are still very marginalised. One major challenge is posed by the dominant patriarchal thinking within academic institutions and their administrative wings, which interfere or control the functioning of these centres while being mostly unaware of the thoughts and developments within the discipline.

Landless dalits and adivasis have occupied parts of a corporate rubber plantation at Chengara in Kerala for fi ve years. Despite being pressurised in various ways, they have held out, sticking to their demand of land for them to pursue livelihoods. None of the agreements so far reached with the state government has been satisfactorily implemented. Yet, the issues raised by the Chengara struggle have a social and economic signifi cance that no government can afford to ignore.

Whether from a class perspective or from a community identity perspective, it is undeniably the biggest failure that decades after the land reforms, a good majority of the dalits and adivasis in Kerala remain fully landless. In the context of the Supreme Court verdict of 21 July 2009, which rejected a stay order by the Kerala High Court on important sections of the Kerala Restriction on Transfer by and Restoration of Lands to Scheduled Tribes Act, 1999 and the new scenario where the legislature and the judiciary proclaim that the adivasi community has now agreed for alternate land, and therefore, the issue of restoration of land has become irrelevant, this study looks into the story of Aralam farm in Kannur district, where a rehabilitation programme by the state is currently in progress. This study reveals the grim reality of the dalits and adivasi people in a state, where no territory is declared as a scheduled area under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.

Appeal for Donations to the Corpus of Sameeksha Trust

This is an appeal to the subscribers, contributors, advertisers and well-wishers of Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), published by Sameeksha Trust, a public charitable trust registered with the office of the Charity Commissioner, Mumbai, India. EPW has completed 50 years of publication. Details here: